In My Studio: Planning for the Year Ahead

Some of the tools I am using to plan for 2017

With the new year arriving I have been spending some time planning and organizing for the year ahead. I would love to share some of my new favorite tools to get the most productivity and creativity out of the year to come.

1) Many Moons 2017 Calendar from Cynla (top left) I love this calendar from our our Makers on Hudson teammate Cindy. Each month includes a beautiful illustration of the moon and dates of the moon phases are marked on.

2) 17 Actions and Insights for a Prosperous and Profitable 2017 (top right) e-book from The Merriweather Council  This is a really useful book to get you started with some easy actionable steps to help your small handmade business grow and prosper in 2017.It is written in a really straightforward no fluff manner with lots of  space for note taking. 

3) Get to Work Book (bottom left) from Elise Joy This planner is the planner of my dreams! As a prolific list writer this is the place I can corral all my lists and take pleasure as they are crossed off one by one. Full of inspiring quotes, pages for project planning and easy weekly layouts it has been a huge help in getting my work done.

4)  Etsy Seller Spreadsheet (bottom right) from Paper and Spark
I have been getting all my business paperwork in order from 2016 and these spreadsheets from Paper and Spark have helped enormously. They enable you to copy and paste all the relevant information from Etsy into a usable and legible document. Paper and Spark also includes video tutorials to walk you through many of the processes and has many free resources on the website for small handmade businesses.  

Here are some of the tools Patricia van Essche from PVE Design is using for planning her 2017

1) Spiral Organizer by Red Star Ink
Great for organizing your budget, paying bills and planning ahead.

2) Boxwood Maze Notebooks by PVE Design 
This stunning spiral bound notebook is wonderful for jotting down to-do lists, shopping lists or ideas for the new year ahead.

3) Small floral clipboards by Staples

Have a wonderful organized and prosperous 2017!
Good Luck and Good Making!

Sarah
So Handmade
  

"A goal without a plan is just a wish" Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Creating Success from the Inside Out: The Hidden Benefit To Planning

As a project manager of multiple projects at any given time, I need to be organized.  So, I have a system in place that works well for me.  This system allows me to keep track of everything that needs to be done in a way that it's not all floating around in my head driving me crazy.

However, flip to my jewelry business and my organization and planning would be shameful to any project manager, including myself.  Since I'm generally wearing my creative cap when doing business tasks, I tend to let my passions and imaginations take me away into the clouds.  Until recently, I had a system for tracking all the things I want to try, sites I want to explore, designs I want to create but no long term plan for doing any of it.  Whenever I had time to sit down at my bench and work on my business, I would right then try to figure out what I was going to do - Make items? Photograph pieces? Add items to Etsy? Reach out to a blog?  Try that new technique?  Eeek! I would get overwhelmed and not make good use of my time.  

That's why I wanted to share with you my new planning technique that has given me my freedom back, pulled me out of overwhelm, given me a sense of real purpose, and basically changed my life!  This technique is not novel, but just something I hadn't followed through with before.  If you lack planning and organization in your creative business, then I hope this technique will help you, too.

1. The first thing I did was sit down and figure out my goals for the year for my business, made fun and enjoyable by using Leonie Dawson's 2014 Create Your Amazing Year in Life & Business Workbooks and Calendars. I really got clear on what I want to achieve this year and put dates by which I want to complete each one.  

2014 Create Your Amazing Year in Life & Business Workbooks

2. I looked at each goal and wrote down step by step on a piece of lined paper what it would take to complete it, even if it was a simple project with only 2 or 3 steps.

3. I decided set days each week that I would dedicate to my business.  Before, I willy-nilly worked on my business whenever I felt like it.  Now that I was going to plan for REALS, I needed to make some concrete and consistent commitments to myself.

4. I took Leonie's monthly calendar printouts (you could use any monthly calendar, iCal, Google Calendar, etc.) and input each individual task from step 2 into the calendar and played around with it until it felt realistic and worked with the overall completion dates I was aiming for.  At this point, I crossed some goals off my list because I realized it was just not realistic for me to accomplish everything in the time I have to spend.

Here are some quick tips for this planning stage:

* Think about how long, realistically, each task will take as you place it in your schedule

* Don't put too many tasks into any given day - you will get frustrated if you can't get it all done

* Think about which days you will have more time to spend and schedule the more difficult tasks for those days

* Yes, you have to schedule some tasks that are not fun at all to accomplish - try to pepper those in with a task that is SUPER fun

* Leave some days with little or no planned tasks to allow you some flexibility in case other tasks take longer than expected (and also to provide room for those spur of the moment ideas you just have to explore)

* Input your intended vacations into your planner - if you don't know when you are going to take time off, at least leave some placeholders throughout the year and you can adjust later

5. Lastly, I bought myself a cute planner at Barnes & Noble that I love and I input all the planning information from the monthly printouts into this planner.  This allowed me to take that extra adjustment step needed to get to a comfortable plan.  

Harmony Chakra Bracelet by Anjali Creations on Etsy

Honestly, now that I have my plan for the year, my mind is so much calmer.  Instead of constantly thinking about what I want/need to do next, I just look at my planner to see what's coming up and I just have to focus on that.  I know what days I'm working on my business and on those days I sit down and get those tasks done.  I don't have to worry about the next project that I have planned to start in March because it's all planned out and will be waiting for me when the time comes.

Have your own planning techniques?  Do tell in the comments below!